Kaha Bath
Sri Lankan Yellow Rice (Kaha bath)
Also known as Sri Lankan turmeric rice, coconut milk yellow rice, festival rice
Sri Lankan yellow rice, known as kaha bath, is golden turmeric rice cooked in coconut milk with whole spices, curry leaves and pandan. This festival rice, sometimes called Sri Lankan turmeric rice or coconut milk yellow rice, is fragrant, faintly rich and far more interesting than plain rice, yet barely more effort. Serve it under a spread of curries and sambols.
Also in our Muslim Sri Lankan collection.
Fragrant turmeric and coconut rice scented with whole spices, the celebration rice that turns dinner into a feast.
- Total time
- 35 min
- 10 min prep · 25 min cook
- Serves
- 6 people
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Spice level
- Mild
- Country help
- USA · UK · AU · CA substitutes included
CeylonCooking
ceyloncooking.com/recipes/yellow-rice
Sri Lankan Yellow Rice (Kaha Bath)
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Nutrition
Estimated values, per serving.
About This Dish
Ask for kaha bath at a Sri Lankan celebration and you'll be handed a mound of glossy golden rice that smells of cinnamon and clove before you even taste it. Kaha means yellow and bath means rice, so the name is simply 'yellow rice', the everyday term for the festive turmeric and coconut rice that anchors a celebration plate. You'll also see it called turmeric rice or coconut milk yellow rice, but on a Sri Lankan table it's almost always just kaha bath.
This is celebration food. It turns up at weddings, almsgivings, birthdays and New Year tables, piled high and crowned with fried cashews and raisins, a row of curries and sambols fanned out around it. The dish carries strong roots in the Malay and Moor kitchens of the island, where spiced, coconut-enriched rice became the centrepiece of a feast. Every household guards its own balance of spice and richness. The smell of pandan and curry leaves frying in ghee is, for many people, the smell of a party about to begin.
A good yellow rice is about restraint and aroma. The turmeric should colour the grains a warm, even gold without turning bitter. The coconut milk should enrich without making it heavy. The whole spices should perfume every forkful while staying whole and easy to push aside. Done right, the grains stay separate and fluffy, each one buttery and lightly perfumed, good enough to eat on its own yet built to soak up everything you serve alongside it.
Why Coconut Milk and Turmeric Carry This Rice
Turmeric is the heart of kaha bath, and a little goes a long way. Just half a teaspoon is enough to turn two cups of rice a warm, even gold and lay down a gentle earthy warmth underneath the spices. Pile in more and the colour goes garish, the taste turns medicinal and bitter. This is the most common way this rice goes wrong. The pigment is fat-soluble, so blooming it in the oil and coating the grains before any liquid goes in gives a deeper, more even colour than stirring it into water.
Coconut milk is what lifts yellow rice above plain spiced rice. Thick, full-fat coconut milk enriches the grains and gives them a faint sweetness and a buttery finish, while still letting them cook up separate and fluffy rather than sticky. It works alongside the ghee or coconut oil to carry the aroma of the cinnamon, cardamom, clove, curry leaves and pandan through every grain. Light or watered-down coconut milk simply cannot do this. The richness is the point.
What It Should Taste Like
Buttery and aromatic, gently perfumed with cinnamon, cardamom and clove, coloured a warm gold by turmeric and enriched with coconut milk. The grains stay separate and fluffy, savoury rather than sweet, a treat in their own right.
Ingredients
This recipe makes 6 servings. Change the number and every amount below updates with it. Substitutes for hard-to-find items are in the sidebar.
The US button converts grams, millilitres and centimetres to ounces, cups and inches. Spoon measures stay exactly as they are.
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- Basmati or long-grain ricerinsed2 cups
- Thick coconut milk1 cup
- Water or stock1½ cups
- Ground turmeric½ tsp
- Coconut oil or ghee2 tbsp
- OnionSlice it.1
- Cinnamon1 stick
- Cardamom4 pods
- Cloves4
- Curry leaves1 sprig
- Pandan (rampe)5 cm piece
- Salt1 tsp
- Cashews and raisinsOptional, for garnish.2 tbsp each
Method
Follow these 5 steps. Each one explains not just what to do, but why it matters.
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- 01
Toast the Aromatics
Heat the oil or ghee in a heavy pot. Fry the curry leaves, pandan, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves until fragrant. Add the sliced onion and cook until soft and golden.
Look, this first minute or two sets the whole aroma of the dish. When the whole spices hit hot fat they bloom and let out oils you just can't coax from them by boiling in water later. Listen for curry leaves crackling and cardamom pods swelling a little, and breathe in. If the kitchen smells warm, sweet and spiced, the fat has taken on that flavour and will carry it into every grain. Then the onion goes in and cooks down soft and golden, adding a gentle savoury sweetness that rounds out the spice.
Tip: Give the cardamom pods a light whack with the flat of a knife before they go in. A small split lets the seeds perfume the oil far more than a sealed pod ever will.
- 02
Coat the Rice
Add the rinsed rice and the turmeric and stir for 1-2 minutes, until every grain is glossy with the spiced fat and lightly toasted.
This step decides both colour and texture. Turmeric is fat-soluble, so stirring it through the oil-coated grains now gives a far more even, glowing gold than dumping it into the cooking liquid. That quick toast in hot fat also firms up the outside of each grain, which is the trick to rice that cooks separate and fluffy instead of clumping into a sticky mass. Listen for the grains to start making a faint dry, papery sound and smell a gentle toasty note, and that's your cue they're coated and ready for liquid.
Tip: Rinse the rice until the water runs almost clear before it goes in. Washing off the loose surface starch is what keeps the finished rice fluffy, not gluey.
- 03
Add the Liquid
Pour in the coconut milk, water and salt. Stir once, taste the liquid to check the seasoning, and bring it up to a boil.
The liquid-to-rice ratio is everything here, and stirring just once matters more than it sounds. Over-stirring at this stage knocks starch off the toasted grains and undoes the fluffiness you just built, so one gentle pass to distribute the salt and settle the rice into an even layer is all it needs. Taste the liquid before it boils. It should taste pleasantly seasoned, a touch saltier than you expect the rice to be, because the grains will absorb and dilute it. Thick coconut milk will make the surface look faintly creamy, and that's exactly right.
Tip: Season the liquid, not the cooked rice. Salt added now is drawn evenly into every grain as it absorbs the liquid. Salt sprinkled on at the end just sits on the surface.
- 04
Cover and Cook
Cover the pot, lower to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 minutes (or use a rice cooker) until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
Once the lid is on, the rice cooks in trapped steam, and the single biggest temptation is to peek. Resist it. Every time you lift the lid you let out the steam doing the cooking and the temperature drops, which is how you end up with grains that are crunchy on top and mushy at the bottom. Keep the heat low and steady because a violent boil will catch and scorch the coconut milk on the base before the grains are done. When the time is up the surface should look dimpled with little steam holes and the liquid should be gone.
Tip: If your pot lid is loose, lay a clean tea towel under it to trap the steam. A heavy, well-sealed lid is what gives you evenly cooked grains.
- 05
Rest and Fluff
Rest the rice off the heat, still covered, for 10 minutes, then fluff gently with a fork. Top with fried cashews and raisins if you're using them.
Resting isn't optional, it's the part that actually finishes the rice. In those ten quiet minutes the leftover steam moves through the pot, the grains firm up and release each other, and any slightly wet rice at the bottom settles. Fluff it straight out of the pot and you tear the still-fragile grains and end up with gummy rice. Lift the lid and run a fork through properly and the grains should separate into soft, golden clouds. Cashews and raisins fried in a little ghee until the nuts turn golden and the raisins plump up give it that unmistakable celebration finish.
Tip: Use a fork and a lifting, folding motion, never a spoon. A spoon presses and smears the grains together, a fork separates them and keeps the rice light.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Too much turmeric turns the rice bitter and a garish neon yellow. Half a teaspoon for two cups is plenty.
- Lifting the lid to peek while it steams lets out the steam the rice needs to cook evenly.
- Skipping the rest before fluffing. The grains tear and the rice turns gummy.
- Using light or watered-down coconut milk strips out the richness that makes this rice special.
- Boiling too hard means the coconut milk scorches on the base before the grains are tender.
- Skip toasting the whole spices in fat first and the rice ends up coloured but barely perfumed.
Serving Ideas
- Serve it under a spread of chicken curry, dhal and sambols for a full celebration feast.
- With cashew curry and a vegetable curry for a vegetarian table.
- Topped with fried onions, golden cashews and plump raisins for parties.
- Alongside eggplant moju and pol sambol for the classic sweet, sour and spicy contrast.
- As the base for a rice and curry platter with a meat curry and a fresh sambol.
Sri Lankan Yellow Rice is one of the courses in our vegetarian rice and curry menu, our seafood rice and curry menu and our sri lankan party menu menu, if you want the whole plate rather than one dish.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Keeps for 3 days refrigerated in a sealed container and freezes for up to 1 month. Cool it fast and refrigerate within a couple of hours, because cooked rice spoils quicker than most leftovers. Reheat with a splash of water to loosen the grains, in the microwave or a covered pan, until piping hot right through.
Two Ways to Cook It
Use a rice cooker. Toast the whole spices and onion in a pan until fragrant, then tip everything into the cooker with the rinsed rice, coconut milk, water and salt and press cook. Let it rest on warm for 10 minutes before fluffing, and you get fluffy yellow rice with no pot-watching.
Use freshly squeezed coconut milk and ghee, and cook the rice in a heavy clay or thick-based pot so a faint golden crust forms at the bottom. Fry the cashews and raisins separately in ghee until the nuts are deep gold and the raisins puff up, then scatter them over just before serving. A piece of fresh pandan and a sprig of curry leaves picked the same day make all the difference to the aroma.
Lighter and Healthier Version
Yellow rice is naturally vegetarian and not heavy, but the coconut milk and ghee do add fat. A few small swaps keep the golden, fragrant character and trim the richness and sodium, which is handy if you're serving it under several rich curries.
Lighten the Coconut Milk
Use half thick coconut milk and half extra water, or go with a light coconut milk topped up with stock. You still get that buttery aroma with noticeably less saturated fat.
Less Fat to Start
Toast the spices and onion in 1 tablespoon of oil instead of 2, and use a non-stick pot. The whole spices carry most of the flavour, so you lose very little.
Lower the Sodium
Cut the salt to half a teaspoon. Let the spices and coconut do the work, especially if the curries alongside are well-seasoned.
Skip or Lighten the Garnish
The fried cashews and raisins are optional, and they add fat and sugar. Toast the cashews dry in a pan and skip the raisins for a lighter finish.
Use a Heart-Friendly Oil
Use a little rice bran or olive oil instead of ghee to keep it dairy-free and lower in saturated fat. It stays fragrant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kaha bath translates as yellow rice. Kaha is the Sinhala word for yellow and bath means rice, so the name simply describes the golden colour the turmeric gives it. It's also called Sri Lankan turmeric rice or coconut milk yellow rice, all names for the same festive rice cooked in coconut milk with whole spices.
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